White coat ceremony marks start of medical school journey

President John L. Lahey told the 90 Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine students, selected from more than 5,200 applicants, that they enter the field at one of the most challenging and transformative periods in the history of health and medicine. Read more: http://bit.ly/quwhitecoat | Watch the video: http://bit.ly/quwhitecoatvideo (Photo by John Hassett.)

President John L. Lahey told the group, selected from more than 5,200 applicants, that they enter the field at one of the most challenging and transformative periods in the history of health and medicine.

School of Medicine Dean Bruce Koeppen noted they are not here to compete against each other, but to learn from each other. “Medicine today is a team sport, and you must learn to behave as members of a team,” he said.

Dr. Kristine M. Lisi, director of the Family Health Center at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the medical school’s principal clinical partner, delivered the keynote address. She told students the white coat symbolizes knowledge, professionalism, purity and cleanliness, but also can initiate fear and can be a barrier between doctor and patient.

“But don’t let it. You define your white coat, it does not define you,” she said. While professors can teach the science of medicine, where problems can be solved with almost no emotion, nobody can teach the art of medicine, she said.

Quinnipiac University

Quinnipiac is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution located 90 minutes north of New York City and two hours from Boston. The university enrolls 6,500 full-time undergraduate and 2,500 graduate students in 58 undergraduate and more than 20 graduate programs of study in its School of Business and Engineering, School of Communications, School of Education, School of Health Sciences, School of Law, Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine, School of Nursing and College of Arts and Sciences. Quinnipiac consistently ranks among the top regional universities in the North in U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Colleges issue. The 2014 issue of U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Colleges named Quinnipiac as the top up-and-coming school with master’s programs in the Northern Region. Quinnipiac also is recognized in Princeton Review’s “The Best 377 Colleges.” The Chronicle of Higher Education has named Quinnipiac among the “Great Colleges to Work For.” For more information, please visit www.quinnipiac.edu. Connect with Quinnipiac on Facebook at www.facebook.com/quinnipiacuniversity and follow Quinnipiac on Twitter @QuinnipiacU.